ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF MALENOVO (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com) The site was situated on an area of 0.3 – 0.4 ha. Late Neolithic pits of the end of the 6th millennium BC (the end of Karanovo IV Culture) were explored. Middle and Late Bronze Age piles of sherds of the 2nd millennium BC and two graves dated before the 5th century BC were discovered. Sixty beehive, cylindrical, bell-like and conical Thracian ritual pits of the end of the 5th – 4th centuries BC were explored, containing ceramic vessels and sherds, sherds from imported Greek black-gloss and red-figure vases, amphorae and amphora sherds (including with stamps) from Heraclea Pontica, Chios, Thasos and Mende, animal bones, fragmentary wattle-and-daub, fragments from portable terracotta hearths, terracotta loom weights, terracotta spindle whorls and charcoal.